BUTTE — With more businesses operating in a busy section of Harrison Avenue in Butte, some officials worry more pedestrians will risk crossing the street.
“We may see an increase in pedestrian traffic or folks that want to get from one side of Harrison to the other,” said William Fogarty, the Butte district manager for the Montana Department of Transportation.
Some Butte commissioners have requested traffic signals for a crosswalk in the area of A or B Street. The Department of Transportation plans to do a traffic study this spring to see if it’s warranted.
“Daily traffic counts which are somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 cars a day on that stretch Harrison Avenue, so that’s a lot of cars,” said Fogarty.
Officials say the stretch has plenty of businesses, but lacks close-by crosswalks.
“It’s really not reasonable to expect a pedestrian to walk a half mile down Harrison Avenue to the next signalized intersection, and then come backtrack to the location they want to go,” said Fogarty.
“We’ve observed, and I sure folks who drive Harrison Avenue have observed, pedestrians attempting to cross Harrison Avenue, and it’s a very wide, five-lane facility,” said Fogarty.
